Of Owls and Boys
by Nine of Hearts
Summary: After 3 years at Hogwarts, Blaine finally has a conversation with the one boy who is a complete enigma to him and the rest of the school. A Hogwarts crossover starring Hufflepuff!Blaine and Slytherin!Kurt Written for the KB Reverse Bang. is being a pain in the butt about images (it chopped everything down) so you should definitely go check them out on bluefire986 lj
1. Year 4

A/N: It was a joy to write this fic to go with bluefire986's art! (check it out at her livejournal or over on AO3 where they actually let you integrate pictures)

And thank you as always to heywhoaIwroteafic for being my beta.

* * *

The celebratory parties after their winning matches tend to blend together. They're fun, and Blaine loves getting to celebrate with the whole house, especially now that he's been on the team for a while, but the parties aren't really anything special unless they win the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup. So he tends to sneak off during them. He wants to send a letter to his parents, and he has a headache thanks to one of the Slytherin Beaters and his need to fly into him, so really, the Owlery is preferable to being anywhere near his common room.

When he reaches the Owlery, he expects it to be empty. There are only thirty minutes until curfew, and it's a Saturday. Therefore, he jumps - and possibly screams a little when someone jumps up from where they were sitting on the opposite end of the room.

He puts a hand over his heart, trying to calm it down while he watches the boy step out of the shadows.

"Kurt?" he asks, more than a little surprised to see him. He's never really gotten the chance to talk to him. They've only had one class together each year, and since they're never paired together… "What're you doing up here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Kurt says, somewhat haughtily, petting the owl perched next to him. "Don't you have a party or something that you should be at?"

"Yeah," Blaine starts, surprised by how nervous his voice comes out. He _knows_ he shouldn't be scared of Kurt. He's always off by himself, and everyone seems to either ignore him or make mean jokes about the embellishments he added to all of his robes. Plus, it must have been hard on him, showing up to school for the first week, only to immediately be pulled out for a month because of a family emergency. Blaine is honestly still impressed that Kurt not only caught up in all of his classes, but got some of the highest grades in their year. "I was at it for a little while, but the noise was just… too much. Plus, I wanted to send this letter to my mom and dad as soon as I could. What're you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Kurt asks, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well," Blaine says, stepping into the Owlery completely so the door can close behind him, "I would guess that you're sending a letter to someone, but I'm pretty sure that's your owl, so… I'm not really sure."

"I'm sending a letter to my dad," Kurt says with a glare. "But I'm visiting with Athena first." There's a pause, and then Kurt sighs, "Go ahead and laugh, whatever."

"Laugh?" Blaine blinks in confusion. "Why would I laugh at that?" Kurt crosses his arms, as though guarding against Blaine's next move. "Wait- isn't Athena the Goddess of War? Your owl has always seemed too friendly for any sort of battle."

"Athena can protect herself," Kurt says, immediately defensive. "Can you just send your letter and leave?"

"I-" Blaine glances over to where a few of the school owls are perched. "Would it be alright if I stuck around here with you for a while? I was kind of looking to escape the noise in my House for as long as possible." He isn't entirely sure why he's _asking_ to stay. It is true that he wanted quiet, but he doesn't need Kurt's permission, and Kurt has certainly not given him any reason to _want_ to stay. At the same time though, he can't help but feel as though Kurt's walls are mostly there because he got off to the wrong start. The other male Slytherins almost certainly have very little in common with him, and the girls are, well, highly competitive and seem too wrapped up with their drama to make new friends at the moment. Kurt just needs a friend, Blaine decides.

"Sure, whatever," Kurt says, rolling his eyes before settling back down on the bench, Athena fluttering down to land on his leg.

Blaine picks out an owl - a medium sized black one that he's used in the past - while watching Kurt out of the corner of his eye. He's sitting somewhat stiffly, but he smiles when Athena leans her head down to butt his hand until he starts stroking her.

That's when Blaine decides he's going to sit down next to Kurt after he sends this letter, and make Kurt have a conversation with him. Even if it's just about Athena or their Transfiguration homework. He's going to have a conversation with Kurt Hummel, and tomorrow he's going to join him for breakfast. He is going to be the best friend Kurt Hummel has ever had. Although he probably shouldn't tell Sam that.

"So," Blaine starts, settling down next to Kurt ten minutes later. "Tell me something about Kurt Hummel." The words feel silly coming out of his mouth, but he manages to resist bolting from the room at the appraising look Kurt gives him.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm trying to start a conversation with you?" he asks, still uncertain if this is actually a good idea. Maybe Kurt _wants_ to be alone.

Kurt raises an eyebrow at him. After a minute of this, Blaine's about to just give up and leave, when Kurt sighs loudly. "You're just going to stay here until I talk to you, aren't you? You actually _are_ as much of a Hufflepuff as you appear to be from afar."

"Thank… you?" Blaine says uncertainly. "I'm not really sure what you mean by that, but I take pride in my house."

"Obviously," Kurt snorts. Silence stretches between them, broken only by the occasional owl hooting and Athena fluffing her feathers. "My dad's a muggle."

"What?" Blaine asks, looking over at him.

"You wanted to learn something about me. So there it is, my big secret," Kurt says, gesturing his hands in mock exaggeration. "I'm a half-blood in Slytherin."

"There are a ton of half-bloods in Slytherin," Blaine says, his eyebrows furrowing. "I can think of at least ten off the top of my head."

Kurt rolls his eyes, "There might be a bunch in Slytherin _now_ but it was a big deal not even twenty years ago, so I'm sorry if I can't just 'get over' that blatant discrimination!" he exclaims angrily.

Blaine rests a calming hand on Kurt's shoulder, quickly pulling it away when Kurt flinches. "I wasn't saying you should just forget about the discrimination. It's just- I wanted to make sure you were aware that Slytherin house is beyond the narrow mindedness of it's founder. Heck, none of the houses are solely made up of the pieces their founder admired most. We just all share some personality traits."

They both fall silent again, Athena flying off to eat a mouse one of her friends caught for her.

"Do I get to learn something about Blaine Anderson?" Kurt eventually asks, a nervous tremor in his voice.

"Oh, um, sure. Yeah. I… have an older brother who, upon graduating Hogwarts with no NEWTs, decided to run off to the United States to become famous in Hollywood."

Kurt laughs, causing Blaine to grin at the beautiful sound. "How's that going for him?"

"He has a tendency to change direction really fast, so now he's a magician, working in Las Vegas."

Kurt snorts, "I didn't think wizards _actually_ did that, oh my god."

"I don't know about actual wizards, but my brother certainly decided to go for it," Blaine replies, a happy spark spreading through his chest because Kurt is actually _relaxed_ and happy looking right now.

Monday morning Blaine wanders down to the Great Hall intent on finding Kurt. Sunday morning he had slept late - when he'd finally snuck back from the Owlery (he and Kurt had stayed an hour past curfew by mistake), the Hufflepuff party had still been going strong. Apparently he had been missed, because the moment he returned, his teammate Mike Chang was pulling him into the center of the pack and shoving a mug of butterbeer into his hands. Kurt hadn't been in the Great Hall by the time he'd made it down Sunday. Granted, he couldn't remember having ever seen him at a weekend breakfast, unless he was up extremely early.

Blaine pauses in the doorway, looking into the hall. His gaze runs over the Gryffindor table first and, no surprise, Sam isn't there. He then looks over at the Slytherin table, and his eyes almost immediately land on Kurt, who is sitting apart from everyone else. Blaine makes a beeline for him, only pausing to say hi to Tina when she calls out to him on his way.

"Good morning!" he says cheerfully as he sits himself down across from Kurt.

At first, Kurt doesn't acknowledge him, he just continues eating his breakfast as though he didn't hear him. Blaine's about to try again, a little confused as to how Kurt hadn't heard him, when Kurt looks up and jumps.

"What are you doing here?"

Well. That wasn't the reaction Blaine was looking for.

"I just mean- this is the Slytherin table."

"People sit at other house tables all the time," Blaine shrugs. "I've never sit over here, but I saw you and figured you wouldn't mind the company." Kurt eyes him warily, looking him up and down as though trying to figure out what he's up to. "If you don't want me to sit here, I can go back to my own table?" he offers uncertainly.

"No…" Kurt says slowly. "You can stay here if you want. I don't mind."

"So," Blaine says, grinning across the table at Kurt now that he knows he's welcome. "How was the rest of your weekend," he asks, putting some bacon and scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"It was fine, I got ahead on some of my work." Kurt continues eating for a moment before he seems to realize that he should probably return the question. "How was the rest of _your _weekend?"

"It was good," Blaine shrugs. "We had the day off of Quidditch practice because of our win on Saturday, so I studied with some friends and played some Quidditch for fun."

They continue chatting, Blaine ignoring the looks every Slytherin seems to be giving him when they see him sitting at the table, talking to Kurt. He doesn't quite understand what the Slytherin's have against making new friends, but apparently they're not entirely pleased with his presence. He's not going to let a bunch of people he doesn't know, scare him away from being friends with Kurt.

* * *

It's a week later when Kurt finally starts a conversation with him at breakfast, dropping his fork when Blaine sits down across from him. "Look. No one ever talks to me unless they have to, and I pretty much never want to talk to any of them. I don't understand why you're choosing to sit with me all the time when you have like thirty other people vying for your attention, practically _begging_ you to sit next to them."

Blaine blinks in surprise, momentarily stunned by Kurt's statement. "First of all, I don't care what other people want. I don't know why they never talk to you, but you're one of the most interesting people I've met here, and I want to be friends with you. I was kind of hoping we were friends already, honestly. Second of all, I _am_ hoping that you'll consider joining me and some of my others friends over at the Hufflepuff table sometime for lunch or dinner or something, but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"Wait. You're inviting me to join you at the Hufflepuff table?"

"Yes. Only if you want to," Blaine nods.

"After Transfiguration today? We could walk to lunch together?" Kurt asks nervously.

"Sure!" Blaine agrees, grinning triumphantly. "I'm really excited about this."

"I can tell," Kurt says. "I'm a little bit worried that your smile is going to break your face," he teases. Blaine almost drops his fork. If he's not mistaken, Kurt is ...flirting with him. Just a little bit. Or at the very least he's finally treating him like a friend, rather than someone who's just been showing up to test or bother him.

After that, Kurt joins Blaine and his friends for almost every meal. At first, he's withdrawn, mainly just listening to Blaine's friends talk and hiding in the library all weekend. Eventually though, he starts to open up and join in conversations. Two months later, he's no longer referring to Mike, Tina, Sam, Artie, Mercedes, and the others as 'Blaine's friends.' He's calling them 'their friends.' Blaine couldn't be happier about it, particularly when he comes to breakfast one Saturday to find Kurt and Mercedes giggling together at the Gryffindor table. The two of them have really hit it off, and Blaine often finds them studying together these days. He's a little jealous of the closeness that they share, but he's happy Kurt has someone more than him now.


	2. Year 5

The first week back at school, Blaine barely gets a chance to talk to Kurt. At first, Blaine had thought it wasn't intentional, but by Thursday evening he has tried to chase after Kurt four times only to have him disappear. It's definitely on purpose and Blaine has no idea why. Friday morning during his free period (that Kurt incidentally shares with him, as neither of them are taking Divination), Blaine heads to the Owlery hoping to find Kurt.

He opens the door quietly and immediately spots Kurt on his usually bench, sitting with Athena and staring out the window. Blaine sits down next to him; Kurt doesn't look over until he pets Athena when she chirps happily at him in greeting.

"How've you been?" Blaine asks once it becomes clear that Kurt isn't going to say anything.

"Good, you?" he replies shortly.

Blaine raises an eyebrow. Either he did something to Kurt he doesn't know about, or something's wrong. "Okay, something's wrong, or you're mad at me."

Kurt huffs loudly, staring resolutely out the window. "I'm not mad at you, and nothing's wrong."

"Okay…" Blaine says, confused. "What's going on then?"

"...I'm gay," Kurt says quietly, still looking out the window.

"And you've been avoiding me all week because...?"

Kurt finally turns to look at him, glaring. "Because now you're going to hate me or be all weird or _say_ we're still friends only to ditch me the first chance you get. I just wanted to put it off as long as possible because I've known for years and I finally came out to my dad over the summer, and me being gay shouldn't change anything between us."

Blaine grabs Kurt's hand, causing him to fall quiet in shock. "Kurt," he says, forcing Kurt to look him in the eyes. "I'm gay too. I came out the middle of last year."

"You-?" Kurt blinks at him before laughing quietly. "How did I not know about this?"

"I don't know," Blaine says, nudging his shoulder. "Apparently you were living under a rock. Or- well, it was during Christmas break actually, so you were probably at home."

Kurt sighs, "Does that mean people here are pretty accepting?"

"As far as I can tell, they are. I've never had a problem. I thought _someone_ would give me a hard time, but it wasn't even a huge deal when I came out. I found out that there are other out students in the years above us. It's honestly nothing like the muggle world."

"I would have expected- with the pureblood thing…"

"Me too!" Blaine agrees. "I was ready to deal with snide remarks. I wrote a list of comebacks and everything."

Kurt giggles. They're quiet for a moment before they hear a bell ring.

"I guess that's our cue to leave, I've got Runes in ten minutes," Blaine says.

They stand up, Kurt kissing the top of Athena's head before she flutters up to join the other owls. "I still can't believe you signed up for Runes."

"You're one to talk! You're taking Muggle Studies. You grew up with a muggle dad!"

Kurt holds the door open for Blaine as they exit. "It's interesting! It's a whole new perspective on muggle-wizard relations."

"You just wanted an easy O," Blaine teases.

"That may have been part of it…"

"Okay Kurt," Blaine says, settling down next to him at the Slytherin table for dinner a week later. "I know they haven't announced it yet, but I'm commandeering you for the first Hogsmeade trip of the year."

"What?" Kurt asks, looking up from his chicken. "You're - what?"

"Hogsmeade. The trip they're going to eventually schedule for next month. You and me are going together. You said you'd never been, so I'm taking it upon myself to give you the grand tour and then buy you a butterbeer and we'll meet up with Sam and Mercedes and everybody else."

"Umm, sure, okay. We can do that. We allowed to hangout before then?" Kurt asks. "Because I thought we were going to study for Potions this weekend."

Blaine rolls his eyes and smiles, spooning mashed potatoes onto his plate. "Yes, obviously. Unless-"

"Are you two dating?" a voice asks.

Blaine looks up to see Rachel settling down across the table from them. "...No," he says raising an eyebrow at her.

"I always see you two together and you're all touchy-feely," she accuses.

"We're not dating, Rachel," Kurt says with an annoyed roll of his eyes. "We're _friends_."

"Oh," she says, deflating. "I was hoping I could get you guys to go on a double date with Finn and I."

"You're dating Finn?" Blaine asks in surprise. He's pretty sure that the last he heard, Finn and _Quinn_ were a thing.

"No," she pouts. "One day I will be, and I just want to be prepared for that day."

"Okay…" Kurt says with a raised eyebrow. "Well, that's… interesting. Is there anything else you wanted?" he asks when she continues staring at them.

"Well, I do have a question about the Potio-"

Kurt sighs loudly. "We're studying for Potions on Saturday. If you still have a question then, you can come join us. We have plans to discuss, so if you'll excuse us," he says before turning and blocking Rachel out of the conversation.

* * *

The first Hogsmeade visit ends up being a few days before Halloween, which means it's chilly out, but not unbearable. Plus, the town is decked out for the holiday. Unfortunately, Sam apparently hadn't gotten the memo that Blaine was heading down with Kurt, so he finds Sam joining him on his way to the Great Hall. "Joining" being a nice way of saying that Sam had hung out outside of the Hufflepuff common room after he ate breakfast, waiting for Blaine to be ready to go.

Blaine grimaces at the confused look on Kurt's face when they enter the Great Hall. Walking quickly, he gets ahead of Sam so that he can apologize to Kurt before they go. "I'm sorry, I couldn't get rid of him," he says, glancing over at Sam who's talking to Finn for a moment.

A weird look crosses Kurt's face, "It's fine, he can come with us. The more the merrier, right?" he smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"We can-" Blaine breaks off when Sam puts his arm around both of their shoulders.

"We ready to go?"

Kurt and Blaine simultaneously remove Sam's arm from their shoulders, but nod their agreement.

* * *

The moment Kurt sees Blaine when he returns from spending Christmas with his dad, he realizes that he has a crush on Blaine. Not just a little minor crush. A full blown I-can't-be-around-him-without-acting-like-an-idiot crush. He avoids Blaine as much as he can without being obvious. He puts friends in between them at meals. He studies in his common room instead of the library in the evenings. He invites Blaine to hangout, but only when he knows someone else will be there.

Two months into the semester, Blaine has his first Quidditch match since Christmas. Kurt obviously goes, decked out in Hufflepuff colors, and joining Tina who's dressed in Ravenclaw garb but sitting in the Hufflepuff section to cheer Mike on. They're having a good time, watching the game and cheering when they're supposed to, but mostly just gossiping, when there's a loud scream.

Kurt looks up to see a black and yellow player heading to the ground. He sees the number five on the players back and immediately stands up, heading for the field. By the time he makes it down through the crowd of people who seem torn between watching Blaine and watching the action that's continuing on the field, Madam Pomfrey already has him on a stretcher.

"Is he-" Kurt starts to say, running over them.

Madam Pomfrey looks up, "Yeah, he'll be fine. I just need to check out his injuries and then I can patch him right up."

"Can I-?"

"Kurt?" Kurt hears Blaine groan from the stretcher. He sees him wince in pain as he tries to sit up.

"You," Madam Pomfrey says pointedly to Blaine. "Stay still. If you puncture a lung you'll be stuck in the hospital wing longer. And you," she says, looking over at Kurt. "You can join us as long as you both behave."

Kurt's not sure what she thinks he's going to do that constitutes as misbehavior, but he nods his head in agreement and walks next to Blaine, talking to him quietly.

"I take it a Bludger got you?" Kurt asks, his heart rate slowing down now that Blaine is in front of him and apparently going to be okay.

"You weren't watching me?" Blaine pouts, wincing.

"I took my eyes off you for all of thirty seconds and you got injured," Kurt laughs. "And stop talking, you don't want to injure yourself more," he adds as they go up the front steps.

Blaine glares at him but stays silent.

When they reach the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey tells Kurt to wait outside while she looks at Blaine's injuries.

She lets him in after twenty minutes, and he immediately tries to look anywhere but Blaine. Because Blaine is shirtless - granted, he has an ugly bruise on the right side of his rib cage - and Kurt really wasn't prepared for that.

"Does it really look that bad?" Blaine asks.

"What?" Kurt's head shoots up to meet his eyes. "No. No, of course not, it," he glances down to look at the bruise, unable to stop himself from taking in the rest of Blaine's chest and his tiny waist as he goes. "Okay, so it's not the _prettiest_ bruise, but it's not too bad considering you got hit by a Bludger."

"Crap!" Blaine says, bolting upright suddenly. "The match!" He tries to get up, but Madam Pomfrey is over in a flash, pushing him back into bed.

"You will not be going anywhere for a few more hours at least. And you are not to play Quidditch for the next week. You need to heal. Your bones may be patched up, but I can't heal you all the way or else you'll never learn your lesson. Besides, ribs and potential internal bleeding can be tricky. You're not to risk your life over some silly game."

"Quidditch isn't silly!" Blaine protests, although this time he doesn't try to leave the bed.

"Ah, but it dangerous and not a good reason to endanger yourself."

Blaine slumps, looking over at Kurt as she walks away. "Please break me out of here. We can't lose to Ravenclaw!"

"Blaine," Kurt says, almost losing his train of thought when he puts a comforting hand on Blaine's bare chest. "I'm sure they pulled in one of the standbys, I mean that's what they're there for, right?"

"I'm better though!" Blaine insists.

"Of course you are," Kurt attempts to comfort him. "You'll be back there for the next game. And whether you win or lose this one, I know you'll bring your team back through to the final match. Also, when we left you guys were up a hundred points, if that makes you feel better."

"They might still win," Blaine whines. After a moment he sighs and seems to decide he's not going to be able to sneak out. "So as my best friend ever, due to the fact that you were the only one who thought to join me when I got injured, it is your responsibility to entertain me while I heal."

"You're bossy when you're injured."

"I'm not bossy," Blaine insists. "I just need a distraction from not being at the match. Tell me a secret?" he asks, fluttering his eyelashes at Kurt in an attempt to be coy.

"Erm," Kurt thinks for a moment. "I think you know all of my secrets," he says, because the only secret he can think of right now is his crush on Blaine.

"Well…" Blaine's eyes light up. "I know! You should tell me who you like, because we've never really talked about crushes before, and we _should_."

"I. Well, I don't-"

"Blaine Anderson!" a loud voice calls out as the door bursts open. Both of their heads whip around to face the door, eyes settling on Sam, who is now walking towards them followed by two of Blaine's teammates - Mike and Brittany. "I can't believe you let a measly Bludger stop you from playing!"

"Excuse me," Madam Pomfrey says, walking out of her office. "This boy needs to rest, I can't have all of you in here yelling and getting him riled up."

"I'm fine!" Blaine insists, as Sam's face takes on a contrite expression.

"I'm sorry Madam Pomfrey," he apologizes. "We'll keep our voices down. I just wanted to check in on my friend and see how he was doing, and then tell him about the game."

She gives him an appraising look, before glancing behind him at Mike and Brittany. Brittany's too busy petting Blaine's hair to notice what's going on, while Mike is trying to look as harmless as possible. "Fine. If you get too loud I am throwing you out. Anderson, you are not to leave that bed."

"Thank you!" Mike calls after her as she walks away.

"Okay, tell me," Blaine says, bracing himself for bad news once Madam Pomfrey is back in her office. "How bad was it?"

"How bad-? We won! It was only a margin of ten points because Smith managed to get the snitch right before Lynn did, but Brittany scored a goal right before, so we won!"

"That doesn't give us much of a lead in the tournament," Blaine moans.

"Don't think we'll go easy on you," Sam interrupts. "I don't care that you're my best friend, there's no way I'm going to let you guys win when you play us."

"Are the elves that live in your hair still okay?" Brittany asks.

Even after two years of sort of being friends with Brittany, Kurt has no idea what half the things she says mean. So instead of responding he tries to comfort Blaine.

"If Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw with a subpar Seeker, you'll have no problem beating the Gryffindor when you're back," he says.

"Hey!" Sam cries indignantly. "He is not going to beat us. Gryffindor is superior."

"Okay, out, out!" Madam Pomfrey says, coming back into the room and glaring at Sam. "All of you."

"Do I-?" Kurt asks.

"You too Hummel. I'll have Anderson back to you all by dinner."

Kurt nods reluctantly, standing up to go. "I'll come find you when she gives me the all clear, okay?" Blaine asks him.

"What about the Hufflepuff party?" Mike interjects.

"I… I'll be there. Don't worry." He looks back over at Kurt, "I'll let you know that I'm out."

"Okay," Kurt agrees, sad that he won't be seeing much of Blaine for the rest of the day, but realizing that that would have been the case even if Blaine hadn't been injured. "See you later then."

"Bye Blaine!" Mike and Brittany both say with a wave.

"See you later, bro!" Sam calls over his shoulder as Madam Pomfrey shoos him to the door.

Blaine waves at them all, shooting a wink at Kurt that causes butterflies to reappear in his stomach as he walks out of the room.


	3. Year 6

"So," Kurt says, sitting down across from Blaine at lunch near the end of November. "I was wondering if you'd like to come to my house for Christmas? It's just my dad and I, so it's pretty low key, but-"

"You want me to come over for Christmas?" Blaine asks in surprise. He's never actually met Kurt's dad. He's heard a lot about him throughout the years, but Blaine's parents pretty much always drag him away the moment he gets off the train.

"Yeah," Kurt smiles nervously. "I thought I would offer. You're always here over break, and I thought it could be fun. I was actually going to invite you last year, but dad decided we needed to visit some of the relatives, and I didn't want to subject you to that." He shrugs, trying to act as though the invitation isn't much of anything. Blaine knows that's not true though. Kurt may have made friends over the years, but that hasn't stopped him from being reserved when it comes to welcoming people in. This would be a major step, being allowed over during a time that Kurt cherishes greatly, time spent with just him and his father.

This is why Blaine knows that he should accept this for what it is; a really important invitation that he shouldn't take lightly. "I would love to come," Blaine finds himself agreeing. "I've wanted to meet your dad for ages, and it sounds so much better than hanging around here with the other few kids who stay behind."

* * *

Two days before Christmas, Kurt wakes up to the sounds of his dad and Blaine yelling at the TV. He rolls over and see's that it's almost noon, meaning that he's left Blaine on his own for way longer than he meant to. He rushes through his morning routine, making sure he's presentable before heading down the stairs.

He pauses at the bottom, grinning, when his eyes land on his dad and Blaine who are now high fiving each other as though they were both responsible for the point that their team just scored.

"You boys having fun?" he teases, leaning against the banister, arms folded across his chest.

"You're awake!" Blaine says happily, grinning at him from the couch.

"Morning Kurt."

"I see you two don't even need me here," he replies, walking towards the kitchen to find some breakfast.

When he comes back a few minutes later, cereal bowl in hand, the two of them slide over so that he can sit between them. He nods in thanks, eating while they continue watching the game. After one particularly good play they cheer loudly and Kurt sets down his bowl. "Okay, fess up dad, how did you get Blaine this into hockey after three days of being in the same house as him?"

"Oh come on," he replies, wrapping an arm around Kurt and pulling him close for a moment. "_Everyone_ likes hockey."

"I don't." Kurt rolls his eyes at him. "Seriously, Blaine," he turns to look over at Blaine who glances away from the TV for a moment, acknowledging him, before his eyes go right back to the TV. "You have two wizard parents! And now you suddenly seem to know everything about hockey?"

"Sam talks about it sometimes," Blaine says. "We've actually played once or twice when the lake froze over. Well, Sam played, I tried to balance on skates. Those things are _challenging_," he adds, a whine evident in his voice.

"What do you wizard children even do for fun?" Kurt asks. "You guys only have Quidditch for sports, you have chess and gobstones, and… that really seems to be about it. I'm pretty sure you guys don't even have TV!"

A commercial break comes on and Blaine turns to look at him. "You kind of have a point actually. At some point I think wizards are going to have to start adopting some more muggle technology, but I like to think that instead of sitting in front of the TV all day or filling our time with endless numbers of sports, wizard children are getting to play and discover nature and the world before we're sent off to Hogwarts, land of 'nope that muggle technology won't work here.'"

"I almost left during my first week because I couldn't use my hair dryer _or_ my book light."

"What's a book light?" Blaine asks, head cocked to the side as Kurt rolls his eyes and Burt laughs.

"It's a little light that you attach to your book so you can read at night without disturbing anyone else," he replies, glancing over at his dad and immediately bursting into laughter.

Blaine glares at both of them. "It's not my fault I grew up in a wizarding household!"

Kurt giggles as Burt shakes his head, standing up to grab something from the kitchen. "I am so glad I had a wizard mum and a muggle dad. I got a bit of the best of both cultures growing up."

* * *

They arrive back to school on the Hogwarts Express with all of the other students the night before classes are to resume. Towards the end of dinner, Kurt is exchanging gossip with Mercedes, when Figgins stands up, tapping on a goblet for silence.

"Excuse me, excuse me ladies and gentlemen," he calls out, nodding in thanks when everyone quiets down. "I know you're all eager to get back to your classes tomorrow, but first, I wanted to remind you all that on February 14th, we will be holding the annual Valentine's Day Ball. You may attend if you are at least in your fourth year, or if you are asked by an older student. That is all, carry on," he says, sitting back down in his seat and adding a piece of pie to his plate.

"Oh my god," Mercedes says, gripping Kurt's arm tightly as Kurt tries not to glance a few places down where Blaine is sitting. "You have to go this year. It was amazing last time."

Kurt sighs, pushing the remaining food around on his plate aimlessly. "I don't want to go without a date Mercedes, I'll feel like such a third wheel."

"Oh come on," Mercedes insists. "I'll save some dances for you, it'll be fun!"

"I know you mean well, but it's just…" he glances down the table at Blaine, who's now deep in conversation with Sam. He lowers his voice, "You know how I feel about Blaine."

"And…?" Mercedes asks, gesturing a fork at him.

"I don't think I can stand spending the night hoping that he'll ask me to dance and that if he does, wondering if it actually means something."

Mercedes glances down the table where Sam is now not so subtly gesturing at Kurt while he talks to Blaine. "You never know, he might surprise you. You could also ask _him_ to the dance," she suggests.

"He would have given me some kind of signal over break, Mercedes. Can we just," he stabs a strawberry dejectedly, "leave it. I'll consider going, but I really don't think I will. I have a lot of work to do anyways."

"The dance isn't for another month and a half!"

"I'm sure I'll have a lot."

* * *

"What does the Amortentia smell like to you?" Tina asks Blaine, as the two of them plus Kurt and Mike stare at the steam spiraling up from the potion in front of them, mesmerized by its mother-of-pearl sheen.

"It smells like…" Blaine leans a little closer to the cauldron, taking a deep breath in through his nose. "It smells like grass, hairspray, honeydukes, oo turkey!, some sort of perfume, and… something like the Owlery or an owl, but cleaner? What is that smell? It's so familiar…" he trails off, trying to place half the smells and wondering why the Amortentia is making him smell those particular ones.

"What does it smell like to you?" Blaine asks, turning to Kurt.

Kurt startles, almost knocking over a bowl of newt before straightening up and looking at Blaine. "It's, umm, well," he pauses to take another whiff of it. "It smells like-"

"Okay, class," Professor Dingwall interrupts. "Now that you've all had a chance to take in the Amortentia, we are going to try to brew some of our own. If I see one of you try to sneak some out of here though, I will fail you on the spot," she threatens. "Now, you have two hours to get the first half of your potion done. You will want to get to step 15 by the end of class so that it has time to properly cook before our class on Wednesday." She nods at them all, settling back at her desk while they scramble for ingredients, working in their groups to properly concoct the potion.

During lunch two days later, Blaine realizes that the smells in the Amortentia were related to _Kurt_. He freezes, wondering how he hadn't realized sooner, staring across the room at Kurt, who's sitting at the Gryffindor table, laughing with Mercedes.

He watches Kurt carefully pick the tomatoes out of the sandwich in front of him and almost laughs, because not only did he not realize the smells related to Kurt, he also didn't realize that he is _in love_ with Kurt.

"Hello?" Blaine jolts out of his reverie at the sound of Sam's voice, and the hand he starts waving in front of his face. "Blaine? Anyone home?"

"Yes!" he says, pushing Sam's hand away in annoyance. "What?"

"I was telling you about my morning and then you suddenly zoned out, staring at-," Sam turns around, looking off in the direction Blaine was. "You were staring at Kurt." Sam says in surprise. "Wait- did you-?"

"Did I what, Sam?" Blaine asks, trying to keep his tone neutral.

"Did you finally get your shit together?"

"I have no idea what you mean?"

Sam sags a little. "So you didn't finally realize you're in love with Kurt?" he asks, stabbing his fork at his salad dejectedly.

Blaine's fork clatters onto his plate. "How did you know that?"

"Because you look at him _all th-_" Sam's head shoots up. "You know you're in love with Kurt."

"Not so loud!" Blaine hisses, glancing around at the people sitting near them to make sure they didn't overhear. "Yes," he whispers. "I- yeah. I'm in love with him. How did you know?"

'How did I- dude." Sam says, incredulously. "You are not even the tiniest discrete about it! We have all thought the two of you were dating, multiple times, only to be proved wrong."

"Why would you think we were dating?"

"Seriously?" Blaine continues looking at Sam with a raised eyebrow, so Sam continues. "You've basically gone on dates to Hogsmeade, you take long walks around the lake, you sneak off and spend hours alone together - we still don't know where you go -, and he cheers for you at Quidditch matches, even when you're up against Slytherin."

"That's what friends do though," Blaine replies, glancing over at Kurt again. "Why would that make you think we were dating?"

Sam holds up his hands in defeat. "You just do the couple thing. It's fine, you aren't dating. I get it. But it sounds like you want to change that?"

"I don't know," Blaine sighs. "Okay, so I do. But how would I even go about doing that? I don't want to lose him as a friend. What if he says no?"

Sam lets out a laugh, before realizing that Blaine is serious. "He's going to say yes. Just, ask him to be your date to the Valentine's Day dance and then go from there."

"You know what?" Blaine straightens up in his seat, looking over at Kurt once more. "I'm going to do it. Tomorrow after dinner. I'll plan something a little bit special but not _too_ special. I don't want it to be unbearably awkward if he says no."

"If he says no, I'll buy you a butterbeer, okay?" Sam offers. "And if you don't ask him, I'm going to make sure you do it, and that won't be very pretty."

* * *

By Saturday, Blaine has a plan.

"Good morning," Blaine says cheerily as he settles down at the Slytherin table next to Kurt.

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning," Kurt comments as he grabs a piece of bacon. "Exciting Quidditch practice later?"

Blaine shakes his head, still smiling as he puts some eggs on his plate. "I do have Quidditch, but that's not what I'm excited about." Kurt raises an eyebrow, prompting him to continue. Blaine tries to shrug casually, "It's just a really nice day out, and I was thinking we could maybe take a walk around the lake or something together before studying?"

"It's barely above freezing!" Kurt laughs. "I guess we could go for a walk though, it would be good to get some exc-"

"Hey guys!" a seventh year named Adam who Blaine _thinks_ is a Slytherin says, sitting down on the bench across from them.

"Umm, hey," Blaine says, uncertainly.

"Oh, hi Adam!" Kurt greets, smiling at him.

Adam grins and then turns to Blaine, "You don't mind if I talk to Kurt in private for a moment, right?"

"Uh," Blaine glances over at Kurt who gives him a small smile. "Yeah, sure," he says reluctantly. "I'll be..." he stands up and glances across the room, spotting Mike at the Hufflepuff table. "I'll be over with Mike when you're done."

Blaine briskly walks over to the Hufflepuff table, sitting down across from Mike, where he can see Kurt and Adam talking. He sees Adam lean forward, looking as though he's asking Kurt something. Kurt opens his mouth to speak, but Blaine can't even try to read his lips because Mike chooses that moment to speak up.

"Hey man, you going to say anything, or are you too busy staring daggers at that guys head?"

Blaine looks over at him sheepishly, "Sorry, I was just- sorry." He glances back over at Kurt and Adam before focusing his attention on Mike. "How are you?"

"I'm good, just wondering what's up with you?"

"Nothing," Blaine sighs, grabbing a fork and running it through his fingers. He looks up to see Mike raising an eyebrow at him. He rolls his eyes at himself, setting the fork back down. "It's Kurt. I had this whole plan to ask him to the dance, and then that Adam guy just swooped in and wanted to have a 'private conversation with Kurt.' I lost my chance."

"It could be about anything, dude," Mike tries to comfort. "Does Kurt even know the guy?"

"He seems to," Blaine grumbles. "He didn't sound too surprised when he sat down to join us."

"I'm sure it'll all work out. You're going to have to tell me when you decided to ask him though and how _that_ came about." Mike says pointedly.

"I'll tell you during practice later or something," Blaine says, wanting to wallow in self pity for a little while because he waited too long to ask Kurt.

"Hey!" Kurt chirps, settling down next to Blaine a few moments later. "What's got you down?" he asks, noticing Blaine's harried attempt to hide the dejected expression on his face.

"Nothing!" Blaine says, a little too loudly. "Nothing, just, apparently practice is going to be an extra hour today because..." he trails off, trying to think of an excuse.

"Beiste wants to go over a new play," Mike offers helpfully.

"Okay..." Kurt says, glancing between the two of them uncertainly.

"What'd Adam want?" Blaine asks, suddenly unable to stop himself.

"He, um," Kurt breaks eye contact, reaching out to fill his mug with tea. "He asked me to the dance." Blaine's stomach sinks. He missed his chance apparently.

"Really?" Tina squeals, sitting down next to Mike. "That's so cute! And now you can-"

"I said no," Kurt continues.

"-go to the dance with- wait. What?" Tina asks, staring at him in shock. "Mercedes said you weren't going because you didn't have a date, why would you say no? Especially to a guy as cute and smart as Adam?"

Blaine almost kicks her. Out of the corner of his eye, Blaine sees Kurt shrug. "I didn't want to say yes for the sake of having a date. Adam's sweet, but... well, honestly his friends were jerks to me for years, and I don't like him in more than a casual -acquaintance way.

Blaine bites back a grin. "You ready for that walk?"

Kurt looks confused for a moment. "Wa-? Oh! Yeah. Sure, let's go."

* * *

"So." Kurt says, breaking the silence when they make it halfway around.

"So what?" Blaine asks after a moment.

"You have never once asked me to take a walk around the lake in the middle of winter. What'd you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, er," Blaine rubs the back of his neck nervously. "I was wondering if you, ah," Blaine laughs at himself, stopping so that he can focus on getting the words out. Kurt stops walking, turning to look at him with a tilt of his head. Taking a deep breath, Blaine says "I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me." Kurt's mouth drops open as Blaine continues. "As my date. Like a not friend type date."

"You want to-? With me?"

Blaine's stomach drops. Of course Kurt doesn't feel the same way. "It's okay if you don't want to. You don't have to say yes just because I asked. It's fine, I just thought I would because I like you, and I thought you might feel the same way, but if you don't that's okay, I understand..." Blaine trails off as Kurt, who had stepped closer to him while he spoke, put a tentative hand on his chin, tilting Blaine's head up and forcing him to make eye contact.

Kurt's eyes dart nervously between both of Blaine's eyes, seeming to find something reassuring in them. Blaine's eyes flutter closed, his hands flailing before finding purchase on Kurt's back as Kurt kisses him.

They kiss for a few minutes, Blaine pulling Kurt closer to him. When they pull away, Blaine rests his forehead on Kurt's shoulder for a moment, a disbelieving laugh escaping him.

He looks up after a moment, "Should I take that as a yes?"

Kurt lets out a laugh, slipping his hands into Blaine's and starting to walk again. "Yeah," he rolls his eyes. "It's a yes."

They fall silent again, hands clasped between them now.

"So you're- you like me then? As more than a friend?"

Kurt grins, blushing lightly. "Blaine, I have _always_ liked you as more than a friend."

"You-? What? Really?"

"You didn't know?"

"No! If I'd known, this whole asking you out thing would have been a whole lot less nerve-wracking!"

Kurt laughs, "I seriously can't believe you didn't know. _How_ did you not know?"

"You never said anything?" Blaine asks, racking his brains for anything Kurt might have said that would have given it away.

"You are so oblivious."

Blaine pouts, "No I'm not."

"Yes you are," Kurt grins at him, squeezing his hand lightly so he'll stop pouting. "What made you decide that now was the time to take the plunge?"

"Well with the Amortentia the other day I realized that I have more than friendship feelings for you, and-" Blaine deflates a little. "Okay I might be oblivious if it took me until now realize that."

"It's okay, you can make it up to me by dancing with only me at the dance."

"Who else would I dance with?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure someone will ask, and you better turn them down, Mister," Kurt glares playfully at him. "None of this 'but he's so nice' or 'her dress looks so pretty, Kurt!' You're _my_ date."

"I like that sound of that."

"Me too."

* * *

The night of the dance, Kurt nervously straightens his tie before heading down the stairs towards the Great Hall. He and Blaine have been, well, a _couple_ for around a month now. Their friends had been very much not surprised by the development. In fact, most of their year had apparently thought the were already dating. Kurt wasn't all that surprised. Blaine was.

It's been a month of almost non-stop smiling for Kurt though. He had _never_ thought he would get this at Hogwarts. He'd spent so long completely friendless at the school, and then Blaine had stumbled into his life and everything had changed. Even when they were just friends, Blaine had made Kurt feel special almost every day. And now that they were dating? Well, Kurt was pretty much on Cloud Nine. That's not to say that there weren't problems in his life, but the past month? He pretty much couldn't bring himself to let anything bring him down.

He reaches the top of the stairs coming up from the Slytherin common room and pauses, wishing for probably the first time ever, that the Slytherin common room led to the marble staircase, so he could look down at the crowd of students dressed in their dress robes and happily bandying about, before finding Blaine. He steps forwards anyways, making his way towards the portrait that he and Blaine had agreed they would meet at.

He spots Blaine first. He's deep in conversation with Sam, probably discussing the latest Quidditch match or something.

"I just don't want to mess up this night!" Kurt hears Blaine say as he gets closer. Apparently they're _not_ discussing Quidditch then. He slows down a little to prolong his eavesdropping without being obvious about it. "He deserves the best, and I still can't believe he _actually_ agreed to be my boyfriend, Sam. I don't want to-"

"He's practically right next to you, dude," Sam says, winking at Kurt over Blaine's shoulder and then giving them both a wave. "I'll see you two in there, alright? Mercede's should be here any minute now."

Sam leaves, and Blaine turns around. A soft smile crosses his face as spots Kurt. Leaning in, Blaine kisses him softly before stepping back and looking him up and down.

"Wow," Blaine lets out. "You look really... wow."

"Good wow or bad wow?" Kurt asks, biting his lip nervous, trying not to get distracted by how _good_ Blaine's hair looks when it's gelled like that.

"Good wow. _Really_ good wow. You look amazing."

"You don't look so bad yourself, mister," Kurt says, blushing as he does so.

Blaine _beams_ and Kurt is fairly certain he could stop wars with that smile. "So," Blaine says, sticking his hand out to hold Kurt's. "To the Great Hall?"

* * *

The dance itself is almost exactly like Kurt imagined it would be. There are people he deliberately avoids, but mostly it's just a good time with their friends who are couples, and dancing.

There's actually a lot more dancing than Kurt expects. They avoid the dance floor during the hour that the band plays fast music that results in grinding because their relationship is _not_ ready for that, but the slow dancing? They pretty much slow dance during every slow song.

Kurt's more than a little surprised, because he had spent all this time thinking Blaine would be a typical sixteen year old boy, who had no idea how to dance, and had very little interest in it.

Kurt was wrong. _Very_ wrong, because Blaine knew how to dance. They spent the night twirling around the dance floor.

Around midnight, they were just holding each other close as they swayed on the dance floor, barely moving from their spot. "As much as I hate to say it," Kurt says, lifting his head off of Blaine's shoulder to look around the room. "I think it might be nearing time for us to leave."

Blaine glances around the room before sighing sadly. "It looks like it, let's wait for this song to finish first."

They wander slowly down to the Slytherin common room, talking about the night and yawning occasionally. When they reach the wall that hides the Slytherin common room, Blaine murmurs good night before brushing a kiss across Kurt's lips.

Kurt knows it's intended to be a short kiss, just to send him off for the night with, but he's not having any of it. He's spent _years_ dreaming about Valentine's Day dates, and a lot of those dreams involved Blaine, so he's not about to let the night stop after a brief kiss.

He places a hand on the back of Blaine's neck, pulling Blaine closer while deepening the kiss. Blaine let's out a small squeak at the sudden change of pace, but he quickly catches on and steps in closer to Kurt, backing him against a wall, his hands settling low on Kurt's back.

After a few minutes of kissing, when it feels as though Blaine's about to retreat again, Kurt flips them, so that Blaine's back is against the wall. Blaine lets out a startled noise, but takes it as a cue to continue.

They don't stop until they hear a loud cough followed by a voice saying, "Normally I wouldn't have a problem with watching you two suck face, but you're blocking the door, and no way am I letting a Hufflepuff stumble in there."

Kurt pulls away from where he was sucking on Blaine's neck to glare at Santana, "Like Brittany hasn't been in your room numerous times."

Santana rolls her eyes, "Just move over so I can go in, Hummel."

Kurt steps to the side, pulling Blaine with him, deciding not to bother coming up with a retort when Blaine squeezes his hand comfortingly. Santana goes inside, and Blaine kisses Kurt softly before stepping back. "I should really go now, but breakfast in the morning? 10am?"

"Sure," Kurt agrees, tugging Blaine back in for one more kiss. "Thank you for asking me to be your date," he whispers when he pulls back.

"Thank you for agreeing to be my date," Blaine beams.


	4. Year 7

In October, they get into a really big fight. It's stupid and pointless and only brought on because Blaine gets buried in work and Quidditch and then gets terrified when he keeps seeing Kurt hanging around with Chase, a sixth year Slytherin. He freaks out, and there's yelling and accusations and they break up. It sucks_. _Blaine just wants to talk to Kurt about it - both Kurt his best friend, and Kurt his boyfriend, but he can't.

And he has to see him _every single day_.

Only Kurt barely looks at him and Blaine tries to keep his looks to a minimum.

When he does try to talk to Kurt, Kurt blows him of, running away with some excuse. Blaine has to admit that he doesn't help the situation much, because he keeps ducking into empty classrooms, or starting conversations with people he doesn't know, in order to avoid Kurt.

This goes on for two weeks, before Mike kicks him out of practice one evening.

"You know what?" Mike says, flying over to Blaine after his third failed attempt to properly run a drill. "We're just doing Chaser and Beater drills tonight, you go and find Kurt."

"I can't just leave! I'm Team Captain. How would that look?"

"Blaine," Mikes says, resting a hand on his shoulder. "They'll understand. Besides, the longer this drags on, the more and more useless you're becoming to us."

Blaine sighs, knowing Mike has a point, and calls the team over, putting Mike in charge before he leaves. He is going to find Kurt.

* * *

He searches the library, but comes up empty. No one there will admit to having seen Kurt since dinner. Blaine even asks Chase who just shrugs and says he hasn't been in the library much lately.

Blaine assumes this means he's been in his common room. It's the best place to hide from Blaine - it's not as though he's actually _allowed_ in there. So he heads to the Owlery. At the very least, he can write a letter to Kurt and see if he'll meet with him. He has to. Kurt _has_ to know how silly their fight was and how capable they are of getting through it. He just wishes he hadn't given Kurt reason to doubt that by bottling things up and then _breaking up with him_.

When he makes it up the stairs and through the door, he isn't paying very much attention to his surroundings. He jumps about a foot in the air when he hears a voice.

"Blaine?"

"Kurt?" Blaine says, holding a hand over his heart to steady himself. "What're you-? I'm having massive deja vu right now."

To his delight, a smile twitched at the corner of Kurt's mouth. "I decided to work on my Potions essay up here, and then I stayed to visit Athena some more. What are _you_ doing up here?"

"Oh, I um," Blaine lets out an awkward laugh. "I was looking for you in the library, but you weren't there so I came up here to write you a letter or something so we could talk."

Kurt stiffens, almost imperceptibly. "What did you have to say?"

Blaine debates taking a step closer, but ultimately decides it's probably best not to risk making Kurt leave. "I wanted to apologize about our conversation the other week. None of what I said while we were arguing was true."

Kurt crosses his arms. "So you don't think I'm cheating on you with Chase or otherwise interested in him?"

Blaine's shoulders sag minutely. "I know you're not cheating on my with Chase. You'd never do that to me. ...I do think you're interested in him in someway, but I don't think he's an actual threat to our relationship. I just..." Blaine bites his lip. "I got so busy with Quidditch and homework and then suddenly you were hanging out with this guy I barely know, _all the time_. And I was feeling replaced and hurt, so instead of talking to you about it, I lashed out."

Kurt sighs, sitting down on a bench and patting the spot next to him in invitation. "You can't do that. If we want this to work we have to be honest with each other. That includes letting each other know if we're doubting something or afraid. We can get through these things together and come out strong for doing so. Unless you..." fear flashes across his face. "You do still want to get back together, right?"

"Yes, yes of course," Blaine rushes to say. "We can pretend we never broke up, because I don't know what I was thinking when I said we were."

A genuine smile crosses Kurt's face, and Blaine grins in return. "Breaking up just isn't for us."

* * *

"I can not _wait_ for Christmas break," Kurt groans, flopping down on the bench next to Blaine in the Great Hall two weeks before Christmas. "I swear every professor decided that they should give us a host of surprise assignments due in the next week and a half."

"Arithmancy didn't go well then I take it?" Blaine asks, kissing Kurt's forehead in an attempt to be comforting.

"No it did not." Kurt replies, glaring at the food he's now putting on his plate. "He assigned us a twelve foot essay due next Wednesday. I have two exams next week and three other papers due. _Why_ did you let me take this many classes?"

"I _tried_ to stop you! But, and I quote, 'what if I want to do something else Blaine! I'm dropping History of Magic and Astronomy, but that's it!' and then you glared at me when I tried to get you to drop Muggle Studies."

"How do you do it?" Kurt moans, "You take seven classes and you're doing just fine. _And_ you have Quidditch."

"Ah, but I only have one difficult class outside of the core ones. You have two."

Kurt leans against Blaine, burying his face in the crook of Blaine's neck. "I can't wait until Christmas."

"Yeah," Blaine agrees unenthusiastically. As much as he's looking forward to the temporary reprieve from school work, he's not looking forward to Kurt being away for two weeks while he hangs around the castle.

Kurt lifts his head up, looking at him curiously. "You don't sound all that excited."

Blaine shrugs, "I don't know, you're going home, and so's pretty much everyone else so it's just going to be m-"

"Wait, what? You're not staying here, you coming to my house, aren't you?"

"I- am I?"

"Yeah, I asked you about it weeks ago and you-" a look of mild horror crosses Kurt's face as Blaine shakes his head. "I didn't ask you?"

"Nope," Blaine replies, trying to hold back the grin threatening to spread across his face.

"Okay, well, consider this your formal invitation to casa Hummel. You're not allowed to say no, because my dad already thinks you're coming."

* * *

Their last week at Hogwarts is spent relaxing. They've finished their NEWTs and are reveling in the feeling of being done. Finished with school forever.

Of course, this does bring about fears, because all of their worlds are changing. For the most part, they're all going different directions. They're all going to have to face the world without the safety of Hogwarts.

Most of their evenings are spent hanging out in the Room of Requirement with Mercedes, Sam, Brittany, Santana, Finn, Rachel, Puck, and a handful of others. It's always been their place to hangout together without people giving them looks or reporting them for inviting people outside of their house into the common room. Their second to last night at Hogwarts, Blaine pulls Kurt away from their hangout a half hour before curfew, and they climb up the Astronomy tower, lying on the cool stone and staring up at the sky in the warm summer air.

"You excited to move to London?" Blaine asks, as they lie there, a robe folded under Kurt's head as a pillow, Blaine curled up next to him.

"I still can't believe I even got accepted to the Auror training program."

"I'm not surprised," Blaine says, shifting next to him. "I would have been shocked if they hadn't. You passed your OWLs with flying colors, and I'm sure Sylvester gave you a good recommendation. Not to mention, you nailed your NEWTs last week so of course they weren't going to withdraw their offer."

"You're always so nice to me," Kurt smiles, kissing the top of his head. "I can't believe you're going to be playing for the Tornados next season."

"Only as a reserve."

Kurt rolls his eyes, tightening his arms around Blaine. "At first, sure, but once you get to know the team, you are going to be their primary Seeker and you are going to kick ass."

Blaine's quiet for a moment, toying with Kurt's robe absentmindedly before he whispers, "What if we can't do the long distance?"

"I thought _I _was supposedly the one who was so out of touch with wizarding ways sometimes," Kurt laughs. "We can apparate! And there's floo powder! We can still go on dates and stuff. It'll be like we're living in the same city. It'll be different than seeing each other practically all day here, but I think we'll be okay."

"I totally forgot about that," Blaine says. "Okay. We'll be okay. Yeah. We can do this."


End file.
